TOKYO The legacies of Indonesia's brutal occupation of East Timor from
1975 to 1999 - when there were at least 102,800 conflict-related deaths -
remain divisive in this small, impoverished nation of 800,000 people.

When a referendum on independence was held in 1999 under UN auspices,
the world belatedly paid attention. Despite widespread intimidation and
violence, almost all East Timorese voted and overwhelmingly chose
independence. As promised, Indonesian-sponsored militias unleashed a reign
of beatings, rape and murder while forcibly relocating 250,000 Timorese to
Indonesian-controlled West Timor.

A recently published report by East Timor's Commission of Reception,
Truth and Reconciliation concludes that there is extensive evidence that
knowledge of this scorched-earth campaign extended to the highest echelons
of the Indonesian military.

Bringing these officers and their goons to justice has been a
frustrating process, largely because there has been insufficient political
will in Indonesia. An ad hoc tribunal established by Jakarta did conduct
trials, but all but one of its convictions have been overturned on appeal
and the remaining defendant remains free while his appeal is pending.

East Timor's foreign minister, the Nobel Peace Prize laureate José
Ramos Horta, told me last week that the United Nations missed a chance to
secure justice when it failed to establish an international tribunal in
1999, when there were 7,000 peacekeeping troops on the ground who could
have arrested the perpetrators and when international indignation was
high.

On Tuesday the truth and reconciliation commission dissolved amid
controversy and recriminations - not what was hoped for when this
investigation into East Timor's nightmare was conceived in 2000. This
attempt at promoting a healing process by broadcasting public hearings on
radio and publishing a record of the testimony has backfired, largely
because the president has not yet made the commission's report public.
This delay is generating widespread dismay within East Timor and the
international community.

In an interview last week, President Xanana Gusmao explained, "I
accept the report from A to Z and will not change anything. I believe that
the public has the right to be informed. We must disseminate it in the
proper way, we are not a human rights organization. Everything will be
done in the right way in the right time. At the end of January I will
present the report to the secretary general in New York and will stop in
Tokyo on my return to request financial assistance for a series of
workshops aimed at disseminating and socializing it in 2006."

Gusmao publicly criticized the report for its "grandiose
idealism" and suggested it was written from the perspective of human
rights activists in London and New York rather than in terms of prevailing
circumstances. Horta, for his part, bristles at overseas criticism,
"It's great for the human rights activists to be heroic in Geneva and
New York where they don't have to live with the consequences of their
heroism. They say we don't care about the victims? We care - the president
and I have lost relatives, friends and comrades over the years. We know
the cost of war, the value of peace and the necessity of
reconciliation."

Closer to home, the opposition leader Mario Carrascalao termed the
government quarantine of the report "a grave mistake," adding,
"The government is worried about the impact on foreign relations.
This is normal. But the report presents the voices of victims and their
demand for justice and the government should respect this by releasing
it."

The 2,500-page report assigns primary responsibility for the
devastation to the Indonesian security forces. More controversially, the
United States, Britain, Australia, Japan, France, China, the former Soviet
Union, the Vatican and the United Nations, especially the Security
Council, are charged with indifference and complicity in failing to stop
Indonesian oppression and crimes against humanity over 24 years. The
report suggests that reparations and judicial proceedings are in order.

Gusmao believes the way forward is based on getting at the truth of
what happened, granting amnesty where appropriate and turning the page,
while the church, civil society groups and many victims emphasize
prosecuting those responsible for crimes.

The president defends an ongoing bilateral initiative with Indonesia
called the Commission for Truth and Friendship, despite criticism that it
has no judicial mandate while offering amnesty, thus preserving impunity
for ranking perpetrators.

Whether or not this commission can deliver the truth in 2006, there
appears to be little chance that public demands for justice will fade.

(Jeff Kingston is director of Asian studies at Temple University in
Tokyo.)